Microsoft's Bach: Xbox Will Make Money This Year

We've missed the wisdom of Robbie J Bach, president of Microsoft's Entertainment & Devices Division. In fact, we thought he'd been taken out and executed by Shane Kim or Aaron Goldberg when it came to spokesman duties.

So, it's good to see him back and talking, in this case to the the 'SFGate' column in The San Francisco Chronicle. According to SFGate, Bach "runs the company's hypercompetitive, consumer-oriented businesses. That includes the Zune music player, which competes against Apple's iPod, and the Xbox 360 game console, which rivals the Sony PlayStation and Nintendo Wii", that gives a flavour of how the interview went.

"The highpoints, what are they?" We hear you ask. Here they are:

Making Money
"We said 12 months ago that Xbox would make money this fiscal year and we are on a path to do that. That's a big milestone for us." Indeed they, in fact he, did say that over a year ago. Whether he means that as a whole the Xbox 360 business will go into a profit having repaid the allegedly $21b invested in it - or whether the Xbox 360 will be in profit for the fiscal year we have yet to get anybody to confirm.

Differences from Nintendo
"We think it's (motion control) an interesting and creative concept, but it's not the only new and creative concept that has entered the marketplace. Look at things that are happening in music games and the massive popularity of things like Rock Band and Guitar Hero.

"Look at the phenomenon that is Xbox LIVE and what that's done and how that is changing the game space.

"If you were doing a canonical of what's new and exciting in this generation, you would put all three as the major trend of things that are happening in the marketplace. We participate in some of those and we don't participate in others.

That's what defines the differences between us and Nintendo. We don't have any specific plans about what we are going to do technologically."

In short, "they've got motion sensing controllers and we've got online communities". Makes sense to us. What doesn't make sense is fact that the three exciting things in the marketplace right now are motion control, Xbox LIVE and music games.

What is more worrying is that last sentence about not having any plans for what it's doing technologically - unless, of course, he is just talking about motion sensing.

Lastly, when he says 'Canonical' we think he means 'a list'. Of course 'a list' is a boring, boring way of describing 'a list' and won't win you anything in Business Bingo. As ever though readers we're happy so stand corrected.

The Next Xbox 360
"There is no real projection on that. The last generation for the Xbox was a little short because we entered the market a little bit later in the cycle. I suspect this time the cycle will be a little bit longer for us.

"In terms of our actual thinking about that, we started thinking about the next generation before we finished creating the last one. It's a continuous process. We're always thinking about new ideas and new things. We don't have anything specific to talk about. There are so many things going on in the current generation that will keep us more than occupied for the foreseeable future."

Robbie, the cycle already is longer than the first Xbox. Longer by, well, years. There's no need to suspect it.

Blu-ray
"If you look at the Blu-ray player market, you haven't seen the acceleration everybody expected (since the demise of HD DVD). It's not as much about whether all the content is in a Blu-ray format or a HD DVD format. You have to look at how fundamentally compelling the difference is between a progressive scan DVD player and the picture that it can produce and what you get on a high-definition player. The reality is there is some difference, but most people look at it and say, 'I am not going to pay extra for that'."

Plans for Xbox Blu-ray
"No. There is nothing to even talk about right now with regard to the next generation. That is so far out that there isn't anything to talk about."

There you go then. Simple, no plans "right now". We love that 'right now' that always seems to crop up. Also the fact that it's "so far out" - does he mean that as in acid-casualty like "far out man" or simply "far away from this moment"? With business talk there is no way of telling - unless the interviewer pushes the point and that would be plain rude.

Anyway, it's good to see Robbie Bach.

You can read the full interview over here.